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Ahead of this month's Dubai Air Show, Flight International's Max Kingsley-Jones has been out in the Middle East talking to the major Gulf carriers about how they have been riding out the economic storm. You can check out the feature here and also watch short video interviews with Tim Clark at Emirates, James Hogan at Etihad and Akbar Al-Baker at Qatar Airways. Click here to read the article and see the videos.

The article is part of a wide-ranging special report on the Middle East aerospace sector published by Flight International, while you can also read the recent Airline Business stories on how the Middle East airline sector continues to grow and interviews with the new chief executives at Egyptair, Gulf Air and Royal Jordanian.

Interesting insight from Willie Walsh today into the possible future of BA's operations at Gatwick airport, as he indicated the days of it operating two-class cabins on short-haul flights from the airport could be numbered.

After BA posted first half losses today, the carrier reiterated its belief there were structural changes taking place in the industry, particularly relevent to its short-haul premium business where yields have been hard hit. Asked during a conference call with analysts today about the long-term future for premium in short-haul, Walsh outlined the robust future role he envisages at Heathrow.

"We believe we can continue to justify two-class service at Heathrow for some considerable time. Ten years from now I would expect we will still be operating a two-class service at Heathrow," he says. "I think the nature of the change we've seen primarily relates to point-to-point short-haul premium. I think that is structural. We see that where the short-haul leg is part of a combined short-haul/long-haul product, there is still demand for that product. So even with the most pessimistic outlook on this, we still believe this is a viable proposition for us, though it will be at a lower level and so the revenue stream will reduce, so we need to say a structural change."

But he acknowledges Gatwick provides a different challenge."I'm not convinced we can continue to provide it at Gatwick, because I think the demand at Gatwick is very different to the demand at Heathrow. We don't get as much transfer from short-haul to long-haul, so I think its probably a question of time, and sooner rather than later that we would address the issue of potentially moving to a single cabin configuration for short-haul at Gatwick."

Talking of Gatwick, Walsh said he had already spoken to the new owners of the south London airport. "I still see Gatwick as an opportunity for us," he says. "We've head early discussions with the new owners. We see the change of ownership as an opportunity," he says, noting this was not a criticism of previous management, but his believe Gatwick would benefit from more focused management.

We've not seen the words 'Alitalia' and 'profit' in the same sentence for a while, but owners of the new look, combined Alitalia/Air One operation have at least lodged their first profitable quarter since relaunching the carrier at the start of the year - the airline announcing a €15 million operating profit for its third quarter for three months ending 30 September.

Direct comparison with 2008 is nigh on impossible, given the complexities of trying to come up a with a like-for-like comparison of this year against a combination of slimmed down versions of Air One and Alitalia, even if figures for Alitalia in 2008 were readily available - which they are not. But the profit follows losses of €210 million and €63 million incurred in the first and second quarters respectively and outstrips its own target of reaching breakeven for the third quarter.

And while it might only be a modest profit, it must be a boost to the carrier given the tough market conditions and bearing in mind the old Alitalia racked of net losses in excess $3 billion between 2003-07 alone.

"The ability which Alitalia is demonstrating to be able to deal with a scenario of a market in great difficulty proves the validity of the industrial operation and of the investment made by the stockholders," says Alitalia chairman Robert Colaninno, who led the group of Italian investors which formally took control of the carrier early this year "The challenges that lie ahead are again many and complex, but today we know that we have the means to face them."

So how does United Airlines chief executive Glenn Tilton think the recovery will pan out? Well he's been talking to CNN Money and reckons we're on course for a gradual U-shaped recovery. Check out his take on the current conditions here.

Amid all the gloom in the European airline sector right now, Ryanair's increased first half profits published yesterday showed further signs that at least some of the region's budget carriers are not only surviving, but seeing profit growth.

Ryanair increased first half net profits to €387 million from €225 million at the same stage last year, and while it expects to lose money over the second half of its financial year, is still targeting increased full-year profits net profits at the lower end of its €200 million to €300 million target range. This comes on top of Spanish budget carrier Vueling - recently merged with fellow Barcelona carrier Clickair - which has just announced a trebling of it third quarter operating profits to just under €70 million, while growing Scandinavian budget carrier Norwegian more than doubled its third quarter operating profit to NKr475 million ($85 million).

While Ryanair's yields have been sharply hit by the recession - average fares down 17% in the first half and the carrier is projecting yields falling by up to 20% over the second half - its unit costs were down 27% in the first half driven by the sharp reduction in fuel costs (down from €422 million in the third quarter last year to €246 million this time around).

A further sign of the carrier's growth - the long-term future of which O'Leary has raised a question mark over in relation to his attempts to secure a new aircraft deal with Boeing - is shown by his belief it will shortly become the number one carrier in three of Europe's most important markets. This he says is a result of the carrier's own growth and the short-haul capacity cuts of major European carriers.

"We really are growing very rapidly in some of the big markets," he says, in particularly of its position in the UK, Italy and Spain. "We will shortly be the number one airline in the UK, Italy and Spain," he predicts.

Picture credit: Billypix 

Who knew Milwaukee could breed such intense passion? 

Well it has certainly stirred AirTran CEO Bob Fornaro, who today during the carrier's earnings call spoke very passionately about the carrier's prospects in the market.

Since US regional operator Republic Airways Holdings closed on its purchase of Midwest Fornaro has not shied away from voicing his opinion of Republic's chances of preserving the Midwest brand.

"Republic's not fooling anyone," Fornaro declared today. He argues any business traveller in Milwaukee is savvy enough to know the old Midwest doesn't exist.

"We'll give it a year," says the AirTran chief as he continues to stress Republic has no track record in terms of marketing experience.

Fornaro warns Republic has a real challenge on its hands. They've "done a few paint jobs, cut a few costs and laid off some people....but ultimately they've got to start carrying customers."

Of course Fornaro believes this give AirTran a prime chance to strike. "It gives us an opportunity to make inroads in the market. It really opens the door for us."

All change at CSA Czech Airlines as seven of its eight board members, including CEO Radomir Lasak, have resigned. CSA supervisory board chairman Vaclav Novak has also quit.

It comes after Lasak's long efforts to push through wage cuts.CSA's board had in August offered to resign if unions would a agree to a wage cut deal. While CSA's statement does not mention the reason for the resignation, Lasak is quoted in the Czech press as saying the board agreed to resign after an agreement with unions on wage cuts saving the company around $35 million. These wage cuts, including a 15% cut by pilots, still fall short of those originally sought by the company. You can read plenty more about this here in a detailed article in the Prague Daily Monitor.

Lasak took the helm of CSA nearly four years ago at a particularly dire time for the carrier. He first stabilised the carrier, in part through the sale of a number of assets, before setting out on restoring its profitability. I interviewed Lasak three or four times during his time at CSA, latterly early this year for a cover interview for Airline Business. I asked him just how close they were to the edge when he took the helm. "Close," he said. "I started to read about bankruptcy law." You can read the article here.

But market conditions have turned against the carrier - the airline is expecting losses this year - just as the state has been attempting to privatise the airline. A consortium, including Czech airline Travel Service, is the only bidder still in contention.

In the meantime, new board chairman Miroslav Zámečník says the existing restructuring projecSt are continuing as before.

And in an unusual sign of airport and airline harmony, new man at the helm of CSA is Miroslav Dvorak - who is and will remain head of another Czech privatisation target, Prague Airport. "The appointment of Dvořák, until now the CEO of Prague Airport, does not constitute a conflict of interest.  Both companies are controlled entities according to the applicable legislation, whose common shareholder is the State," says Zámečník.

The BBC broadcast its Panorama programme about Ryanair yesterday - please feel free to comment about it here as we'd love to know what you thought of it. For me the whole programme was overshadowed by the sideshow around Michael O'Leary's terms for doing an interview (live or uncut) - which the BBC would not agree to for the 30-minute pre-recorded Panorama broadcast. Last night's show did include some clips from when Panorama reporter Vivien White approached O'Leary after the carrier's AGM in Dublin last month and the BBC have put the full interview (unedited) on their website - all nine and half glorious minutes of it (that's about a third of a Panorama programme) - so judge for yourself whether it was cut to meet "Panorama's agenda" as O'Leary suggests it would be.

My two favourite bits are:

1. When O'Leary says he can't do the interview now as he has to go and defend the airline in an interview (live) he is doing for another BBC programme (You and yours).

2. The casual, but slightly puzzled look of the guy with the moustache standing in the background - he doesn't look like he is with Ryanair or the BBC to me, so just who is? And I love the way at one point he actually moves to his right, just to make sure he is still in shot. 

Anyway expect O'Leary, who had his say last week before the programme aired, to give the BBC somre more feedback during a press conference in London this morning.

Here's the link, enjoy:

Uncut: Ryanair's Michael O'Leary

IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani is keeping the pressure on states meeting at ICAO to ensure it adopts a "credible" common position to take into December's key UN environmental summit in Copenhagen.

Efforts continue at ICAO's high-level meeting on international aviation and climate change to establish a common position for aviation to take into the Copenhagen summit. The three-day meeting in Montreal is expected to end late this evening.

"Let me be very honest and very blunt," said Bisignani at the end of yesterday's session."At the end of a very difficult day, I am concerned for the outcome of your work. This meeting is in danger of two things: being held hostage by the desire for consensus and missing a great opportunity. You have 24 hours, to rise above the obstacles of a few and deliver results.

"If you fail to agree and declare a credible position for ICAO to take to COP 15,  it will not be the responsibility of industry or of ICAO. It will be the failure of those gathered here who lost an historic opportunity."

IATA has submitted a joint paper with airports grouping ACI, navigation services body CANSO and the International Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries Associations (ICCAIA) putting forward a common position for aviation.

Specifically they are calling for ICAO to adopt a three targets: 

• Improving fuel efficiency by an average of 1.5% annually to 2020
• Stabilising carbon emissions from 2020 with carbon-neutral growth
• Reducing net carbon emissions 50% by 2050 compared to 2005

The outcome of the meeting will no doubt be closely watched in Brussels, as the EC moves ahead with its controversial inclusion of aviation into its emissions trading scheme.

Picture credit: Billypix

Read what happens when one simple computer glitch turns a $40 increase in British Airways fares from the US to India, to a $40 bargain fare. A couple of detailed reports on the how and the fallout here from the NY Daily News and The Guardian:

Oops! British Airways offers $40 round-trip from U.S. to India - by accident

BA sells $40 plane tickets from US to India - by accident